BATTLE CREEK, Mich. — Field of Flight is back in Battle Creek for the holiday weekend, with hundreds of people coming to the area to check out the different planes.
Ryder and Ruby Lewis told FOX 17 they saw their first air show Friday.
“I liked it when they did the heart,” Ryder said. “We seen the barrel roll, that stuff, and the jumpers. That was pretty much the best.”
“I did like the older planes, but boy coming in on that F-35, seeing some of the things that we just went and saw, you know, the new Top Gun movie, so it was kind of cool, you know, to see the movie and then you come here and it’s, you know, like the planes that were used in the movie, so that was pretty neat,” Ryder and Ruby’s mom Roxanne added. “It just draws people together to celebrate America. They do a lot of good songs during the fireworks and just, you know, seeing some of the airplanes that, if needed, would actually, you know, defend our country.”
Reactions like that are why Lt. Ryan Garcia, nicknamed “Peaches,” flies his Super Hornet at airshows.
“Seeing the kids, that’s the main part of this, like inspiring your kid to let them know that ‘hey, you can do this as well.’ He or she, doesn’t really matter. Anybody can do this job, and if you really want to do it, you can go for it. So the excitement on their faces is what does it for me,” Lt. Garcia told FOX 17.
Lt. Garcia also said he’s going to push the envelope and show everyone some of the tactical maneuvers he does when out on deployment.
“We’ll come in, typically, if the profile goes well, we’re not doing a reverse show or anything. We’ll come in from the right. We’ll come in at 500-feet, look a little bit over 500 knots, so probably about 600 miles an hour or so, and then we’ll flip inverted, go idle power and it’s really quiet, but just seeing the ground rush right about you, being that low and inverted. It’s probably one of the coolest things I’ve ever done,” added Lt. Garcia.
For more information about Battle Creek’s Field of Flight Air Show and Balloon Festival, click here.
